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B / **SPORTS** / THURSDAY, MARCH 25. 2010 / **THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN** / KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
FACT OF THE DAY
— Earl Weaver, former manager for the Baltimore Orioles
Junior relief pitcher Brett Bochy has saved three games this season, the team's only saves thus far.
-Kansas Athletics
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Who has the record for most saves in a single season.
A: Don Czyz recorded 19 saves in 2006. Czyz is now a pitcher in the Seattle Mariners organization.
Kansas Athletics
SCORES
Men's NIT Tournament:
Rhode Island 79, Virginia Tech 72
Dayton 77, Illinois 71
NBA Basketball
NBA Basketball
Denver 99, Boston 113
Orlando 84, Atlanta 86
Washington 82, Indiana 99
Utah 113, Toronto 87
Minnesota 95, Charlotte 108
Sacramento 79, New Jersey 93
Cleveland 105, New Orleans 92
Philadelphia 101, Milwaukee 86
Houston 104, Oklahoma City 122
Los Angeles 92 San Antonio 83
Memphis, Golden State, late
NCAA Men's Baseball
NCAA Mets Baseball
Kansas 16, Baker 0
No. 3 Georgia Tech 19, Mercer 4
No. 4 LSU 4, Louisiana-Lafayette 3
Elon 4, No. 5 Clemson 3
No. 7 Florida State 14, Stetson 7
No. 9 Florida 13, Florida Gulf
Coast 8
No.17 Arkansas 7, McNeeese State 6
No.19 North Carolina 4, UNC Greensboro 3
No.20 Vanderbilt 18, Wright St 2
No. 20 Vanderbilt 18, Wright St. 2
MORNING BREW
NFL improves overtime rules
Twenty-eight of the 32 NFL owners voted Tuesday to change the way teams play overtime in the plavoffs.
Now, instead of playoff overtimes ending suddenly when one team scores, both teams will get a possession if the team that receives the ball first just scores a field goal.
playoffs.
The previous sudden death overtime format in the NFL playoffs, which are single elimination, had been under scrutiny for years. Debate on whether the old overtime playoff format was fair heated up again this season. The New Orleans Saints, this year's Super Bowl Champions, defeated the Minnesota Vikings after scoring a field goal on their first possession in overtime during last year's NFC Championship game.
This new rule will make playoff overtimes more interesting and is a step in the right direction because it gives both teams some opportunity to have possession of the ball.
Under the new rules, if the team that wins the coin toss scores a field goal with its first possession, then the team that lost the coin toss gets the ball back with a
chance to score. If that team scores a field goal, then the game continues as sudden death, but if the team scores a touchdown, the game ends. If the team which won the coin flip scores a touchdown the game also ends. This only addresses field goals on the first possession of games.
BY MAX VOGSBURGH
myogsburgh@kansan.com
The point of this new rule is to give the team that lost the coin flip some sort of opportunity to score.
The NFLs competition committee; made up of eight coaches and general managers, compiled data beginning in 1994 that showed the team that won the coin toss went on to win the overtime 59.8 percent of the time.
It's not fair to give a team a nearly 10 percentage point advantage because of a
random event in these incredibly important overtime playoff games.
In every other major professional sport, both teams get an opportunity to score in overtime. In the NFL, at least now if the first team kicks a field goal, the other team will get a chance to respond.
The college football overtime rules give both teams a truly equal opportunity to score. The NFL is now beginning to lean toward that method, and there certainly will be more changes to come in the future.
Edited by Jesse Rangel
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Wildcats grab foothold in tourney
SALT LAKE CITY — Time is supposed to ease the pain of past embarrassments.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The way Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen sees it, though, there are some things you simply can't forget.
Locked in Pullen's memory is the way he felt on New Year's Eve 2007 — the night his team got blown out by Xavier, the same team the second-seeded Wildcats face Thursday night in the West Regional semifinals.
"They laughed on the court, played around," Pullen said. "You don't forget things like that. So when you get the opportunity to play against a team like that, you always remember that, no matter if its one person from that team or 10 people from that same team."
K-State got payback for the
26-point loss — the worst of coach Frank Martin's short career — with a physical, grinding 15-point win this season in Manhattan.
Now, one of America's hidden little rivalries resumes, this time with the stakes ratcheted up a few notches. Kansas State (28-7) is two wins from its first Final Four since 1964. Xavier (26-8) has never been.
"It rings a bell because they're Xavier," Martin said. "I know their program, firsthand. I understand the winning culture they have, the expectations they have. Then, we've played them. We got absolutely annihilated by them on national TV on Dec. 31."
Martin's familiarity with sixth-seeded Xavier comes thanks to his history as an assistant for Bob Huggins — first at Xavier's cross-town rival, Cincinnati, then at Kansas State. When Huggins left for West Virginia, Martin took
over Huggins' program, along with his schedule.
It included two more in a three-game series against Xavier, and after the first of those — the Dec. 31, 2007, matchup — Martin might have been wondering what he got himself into.
His prized recruit and star player, Michael Beasley, forgot his shoes and didn't make a basket until the final minute.
"B I l l (Walker) lost his phone, I think. Client (Stewart) didn't have his shoes, either, Pullen remembered. it wasn't the greatest trip we had made all season.
saved for March, not December.
Xavier forward Jamel McLean doesn't think anyone should get this confused with Carolina Duke. But he has a memory too.
"I don't think it's a real rivalry," he said. "I mean, we played the past couple years. It's a team we have a series with. We've got them, they got us. We're about to go out there again and rally up and knock each other's heads
"To compare us to Kansas, we're going to have to start beating them first."
FRANK MARTIN Kansas State head coach
off."
But we still went out there and slaved. And we got beat."
KansasState will be playing 22 years to the date of its last trip to the regionals, back when Lon Kruger and Mitch Richmond led the Wildcats on a run that
ended one loss short of the Final Four. K-State was beaten by Danny Manning and Kansas that year in the regional final, a story line that's been oft-repeated over the years — certainly too often in the minds of those in the Little Apple.
Which might explain why this season's game, still on some players' minds nearly two years after the previous meeting, was such a physical affair. There were 57 fouls and 73 free throws, lots of hard screens and rough play in the post. K-State fans braved a heavy snowstorm to attend the game, and when the Wildcats finished up the 71-56战 they snaked behind the media table to celebrate with the students — the kind of celebration normally
The Muskeeteers let them know about it, dissing the Wildcats by cracking jokes at the free throw line to turn a bad loss into something even worse.
But for as long as they last in this tournament, the Wildcats won't have to be the "other" team from Kansas. The Jayhawks lost last weekend, removing from the tournament a team responsible for three of Kansas State's seven losses this year.
online.ku.edu/is
"To compare us to Kansas, we're going to have to start beating them first," Martin said. "If we're not beating them, we are not getting too much done."
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THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
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TODAY
Women's basketball at Illinois State, 7:15 pm
FRIDAY
Tennis vs. Iowa State, 2 p.m.
Baseball
at Baylor, Waco, Texas,
6:30 p.m.
Track & Field
at Razorback Spring
Invitational, Fayetteville,
Ark, all day,
SATURDAY
Softball
at Texas A&M, College
Station, Texas, 1 p.m.
Soccer vs.KU Men's Club Team, 2 p.m.
Baseball
at Baylor, Waco, Texas,
3 p.m.
**Rowing**
at Texas, Austin, Texas,
TBA
SUNDAY
Softball at Texas A&M, 12p.m.
Baseball at Baylor, 1 p.m.
Tennis vs. Nebraska, 2 p.m.
MLB
Cubs score 12 runs on Texas Rangers
SUPRRISE, Ariz. — Chad Tracy hit a three-run double and Sean Marshall threw four strong innings to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 12-1 win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
Marlon Byrd added an RBI single and Kosuke Fukudowe was 3 for 3 with an RBI double, a walk and two runs scored for the Cubs.
Marshall battling for a spot in the rotation, scattered three hits and gave up an unearned run with a walk and five strikeouts.
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"I'm not saying I'm the perfect candidate for it but I love to start. I want to start," said Marshall.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella said earlier this week he'll announce his rotation on Friday. Marshall, who has allowed three runs — two earned — on seven hits over 11 innings this spring, remains in the mix along with fellow lefty Tom Gorzellany.
"My attitude is always to keep a positive attitude whatever role I'm in and help the team win some games," Marshall said.
Associated Press
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